[DaveBlake]

@Geeeronimo  thanks for the flac file. I am delighted to say that I can repeat the problem with it
It plays from file view but not from library, so now the funs begins.

Logs useful too. I may need to pass that download link to other devs, so could you leave it up for a day or so just in case.

Edit: It does seem that the file is corrupt - I can't get any other media players on Windows to play it. But Kodi in file view does. I am bemused that when passed from library the same file is mistaken for mp3. Meanwhile the libary entru it creates is fine, so not a library fault, just different paths to the player producing different outcomes

BTW I rip my music to FLAC using EAC, so generally I think that process is fine.

[Graham68]

I've also grabbed the debug logs from the following process:

* Play the song via Files menus - plays fine.
* Select the song through the Library  (4887)- system pauses for a few seconds and then skips to next song, which also won't play (4888) and then skips to the next song which does play (4889).

Logs here:

https://pastebin.com/N7tZb6qG

[Graham68]

@Geeeronimo  thanks for the flac file. I am delighted to say that I can repeat the problem with it
It plays from file view but not from library, so now the funs begins.

Logs useful too. I may need to pass that download link to other devs, so could you leave it up for a day or so just in case.

Edit: It does seem that the file is corrupt - I can't get any other media players on Windows to play it. But Kodi in file view does. I am bemused that when passed from library the same file is mistaken for mp3. Meanwhile the libary entru it creates is fine, so not a library fault, just different paths to the player producing different outcomes

BTW I rip my music to FLAC using EAC, so generally I think that process is fine.

 I don't believe the files I have issues with have any corruption as they play ok through VLC on Windows and Plex and Emby servers on Linux also serve them up ok.  It certainly is an odd problem!

[Graham68]

On my side I have done both actions, playing from Library then playing from Files, in the same sequence. From Library it doesn't play, and the interface freezes during ~30s. From Files no problem.

 I'm sorry you have this problem too, but I'm glad it's not just my imagination!

[Geeeronimo]

Dave, the very same FLAC file I sent you does play on my netbook, Windows 8.1 and VLC 2.2.1

Good luck !

[DaveBlake]

Dave, the very same FLAC file I sent you does play on my netbook, Windows 8.1 and VLC 2.2.1

Interesting to know. It is MS media player on Win10 that doesn't like it, nor does Grove, so there is something about that file that is different. Yet the file itself is not the entire issue, after all it plays from file view, but it is contributing in some way. If nothing else it has meant I can reproduce the issue.

What it has done is reveal a longer standing issue in the music library to player interface. Things work in most cases, but there is something that needs to be changed. Since it is a long standing issue going back before v15 in my testing, and v17 is frozen, the fix will be for v18 Leia.  I need more help from the player devs to understand it more fully or explain more clearly, but we are on it.

So thanks both for raising this issue, Kodi will be better as a result.

[DaveBlake]

Also I am still unclear why for Graham there has been a change in behaviour between 17.5 and 17.6.  FFmpeg, the heart of the player was bumped to 3.1.11 in 17.5, so the file parsing could be different from 17.4 onwards. Maybe you skipped an update?

What could be helpful Graham is if you could upload an example file that does not play and PM me a link. You need to get to 10 posts to be able to do that, but that isn't far.

I can't get the file from Geeeronimo to play from library on any verison I have tried (v15 onwards).

played fine by Kodi until some day when it refused to do so

Any chance you remember when in the last 6 years that was?

[Geeeronimo]

played fine by Kodi until some day when it refused to do so

Any chance you remember when in the last 6 years that was?  

Well, now that you ask the question, I have a big doubt. I just changed completely my music setup, from an old mini PC running XBMC to a Mi Box running Kodi, and I don't remember on which machine this album was playing normally...

What I remember is the following:
- XBMC version was Dharma or Frodo. So there is a little chance you can play the file with one of these two versions
- on the Mi Box I only had Krypton 17.4 (not sure), 17.5 and now 17.6. So I'm sure I never had the opportunity to use some version in between Frodo and Krypton
- and, believe me or not (because it's really weird), last week I selected this album from Library, it played normally during a few seconds, and then it stopped and refused to play...

I will rip again this CD to see what happens. I have more than 300 FLAC albums, and for the moment this one is the only one that shows this behavior. Maybe it's just Kodi that doesn't like a Saucerful of Secrets...

[DaveBlake]

Frodo to Krypton quite a leap

- and, believe me or not (because it's really weird), last week I selected this album from Library, it played normally during a few seconds, and then it stopped and refused to play...

I will rip again this CD to see what happens. I have more than 300 FLAC albums, and for the moment this one is the only one that shows this behavior. Maybe it's just Kodi that doesn't like a Saucerful of Secrets... 

I have more than 1500 albums in FLAC (ripped using EAC) and they all play from the library.

There is a fundamental issue that this file (and whatever it's specialness) has simply revealed. I retagged it and ended up with crashes rather than just not playing, so take care! Again we know why the crash happens, and a design change is needed, so I have not persued why that file does not parse in the way the majority do. It really could be down to the music data   Just be glad it is rare for the parsing to fail.

The interface to the player is making me tear my hair at the moment, I need more help from the experts and they are busy. I will post if I make progress with how to fix this, but at least we understand the problem.

[Graham68]

Also I am still unclear why for Graham there has been a change in behaviour between 17.5 and 17.6.  FFmpeg, the heart of the player was bumped to 3.1.11 in 17.5, so the file parsing could be different from 17.4 onwards. Maybe you skipped an update?

What could be helpful Graham is if you could upload an example file that does not play and PM me a link. You need to get to 10 posts to be able to do that, but that isn't far.

I can't get the file from Geeeronimo to play from library on any verison I have tried (v15 onwards).

played fine by Kodi until some day when it refused to do so

Any chance you remember when in the last 6 years that was? 

OK I'll keep posting until I get to 10 or I guess I could pop it on dropbox for a while?

[Graham68]

Dave, the very same FLAC file I sent you does play on my netbook, Windows 8.1 and VLC 2.2.1

Interesting to know. It is MS media player on Win10 that doesn't like it, nor does Grove, so there is something about that file that is different. Yet the file itself is not the entire issue, after all it plays from file view, but it is contributing in some way. If nothing else it has meant I can reproduce the issue.

What it has done is reveal a longer standing issue in the music library to player interface. Things work in most cases, but there is something that needs to be changed. Since it is a long standing issue going back before v15 in my testing, and v17 is frozen, the fix will be for v18 Leia.  I need more help from the player devs to understand it more fully or explain more clearly, but we are on it.

So thanks both for raising this issue, Kodi will be better as a result. 

 The files I have won't play with Windows Media Player or Groove either, but then that's not unusual in my experience; just one of the many reasons I use VLC.  However, if I run them through a FLAC checker no errors are reported.   The odd thing is that these have been playing in Kodi until a week or two ago when I got the latest Kodi update on Ubuntu, and of course they still play via the Files menu.

[Graham68]

Also I am still unclear why for Graham there has been a change in behaviour between 17.5 and 17.6.  FFmpeg, the heart of the player was bumped to 3.1.11 in 17.5, so the file parsing could be different from 17.4 onwards. Maybe you skipped an update?

What could be helpful Graham is if you could upload an example file that does not play and PM me a link. You need to get to 10 posts to be able to do that, but that isn't far.

I can't get the file from Geeeronimo to play from library on any verison I have tried (v15 onwards).

played fine by Kodi until some day when it refused to do so

Any chance you remember when in the last 6 years that was?  

OK I'll keep posting until I get to 10 or I guess I could pop it on dropbox for a while? 

OK I'm at 10 posts.  Is there a facility here that I should be using or shall I just use dropbox?

[DaveBlake]

OK I'm at 10 posts.  Is there a facility here that I should be using or shall I just use dropbox? 

No special facility. Sure Dropbox is fine, then PM me the link to it (rather than broadcast to the world).  Having another example, that played with 17.5 (or 17.4?) will be useful.

BTW with replies there is no need to quote the entire previous post, either edit it down to the useful bits or use quick reply (type in the box, not reply button).

[Geeeronimo]

Dave, did you try to play the suspicious file with Frodo (I think this was the version I had before, not Dharma) ?

Also, since you're suspecting parsing problems, does it mean the Library parses the whole file, and not only the metadata ?

On my side I tried another thing. I used fre:ac audio converter to convert from FLAC to FLAC, using the "fastest encoding" setting of the FLAC encoder. For some reason I don't understand, the output FLAC files are smaller in size than the input ones (why?). Then I imported these new files into Kodi Library, and they play fine.

[DaveBlake]

No I didn't attempt Frodo, even going back to v15 was futile really, Kodi moves ever forwards...

Also, since you're suspecting parsing problems, does it mean the Library parses the whole file, and not only the metadata ?

No, you have misinterpreted my meager information, I will try to explain more because you are interested but it is hard if you are not familiar with Kodi code.

The library scanning of metadata and resulting DB entries are fine. In fact this issue has little to do with the music library itself, more about the player and how the Kodi UI requests playback of something you have selected while navigating the music library.

The longstanding fault is that when the item sent to the player is a music library entry, parts of the player that want to be given a filename are given the VFS path instead (a fake path used by Kodi internaly that describes the library entry e.g. "musicdb://albums/3167/76277.flac?albumid=3167"). So some essential processing gets missed, but no one noticed this because the player is so clever that it adapts, and uses the first part of the file data to determine the file format that the other procedure failed to get. This works 99.99% of the time, hence it has been like it for years as far as I can tell. But there are some files, like the examples you have both given, that the ffmpeg parser can not do this trick for. Also changes to ffmpeg may impact the ability to rescue playback from this design mistake.

Ffmpeg should not be having to do this, the fix is to ensure that the procedure that needs the file name actually gets a filename. That sounds trivial, but I am finding it quite a challenge as I'm unfamiliar with the bowels of the player to FileItem interface.

On my side I tried another thing. I used fre:ac audio converter to convert from FLAC to FLAC, using the "fastest encoding" setting of the FLAC encoder. For some reason I don't understand, the output FLAC files are smaller in size than the input ones (why?). Then I imported these new files into Kodi Library, and they play fine.

Yes, you have managed to remove whatever was different about the file, and the part of ffmpeg that does the "trick" is able to cope with the new one.